first punting lesson while travelling back to Iffley. He learned the task rather easily, like all physically dependent tasks. The action of the body seemed to restore a sense of homeostasis to his mind. "Thought is never sure of its contacts with reality; action must intervene to render the rhetoric of thought harmless and its emotions sane." [This idea is recurring in the novel. He uses bodily action to remain in contact with reality via football, rowing, and running. As he gets older he exercises less and uses his body less, thus causing pain in his thoughts and an irrational emotional state (attributing too much control to himself over the world).] Peter decides to take Oliver to see his foreign cousin at Eton, an English public school. This is when we first encounter Oliver's cousin, Mario. Mario is younger than Oliver, but he was at least his intellectual equal, perhaps even his superior. He carried on a full conversation with Peter, and Oliver listened. Despite the lack of conversation between the two boys they each felt the presence of the other. Oliver and Mario seemed, from the beginning, to be direct opposites. "[Mario] is the anti-puritan, the foil to Oliver; his destiny on earth is happiness, and the world, Santayana believes, is better off for him and his kind. At lunch the next day they all three sat and conversed until Peter began to cough and grow pale. Peter decided to stay in and rest next to a fire while Mario showed Oliver the sights. They decided to walk and talk rather than see the sights. Peter was dreading the walk down Castle Hill, but he didn't want to disappoint Mario so he decided he would dose himself with medicine before the trip. When the boys returned they got a visit from Mr Rawdon Smith, Mario's schoolmaster. They spoke of a multitude of things, but the most important topic was of Mario's staying at Eton. Mario wanted to stay there so he could see his mother on the holidays. As Mr Rawdon Smith continued to speak Peter slipped into a limp slumber in the arm chair, with his eyes closed. Mr Rawdon Smith went to shake him until he encountered Oliver's deliberately rough arm-nudge. Oliver knew that Peter had a chill and must have medicated himself with a sedative, and he also knew that the sedative had taken him over.